Apparatus

ABSTRACT

A waste spool for use with a ring twister comprising a frustoconical body member having a pair of tabs extending outwardly from its top surface. The particular structural relationship of the tabs with the tapered surface of the body member, coupled with a specified taper of the body member, provide a starting location for the waste windings that will enable their easy removal as a circular yarn wrap over the end of the waste spool.

United States Patent Hartley, Jr.

[ 51 Feb. 8, 1972 [54] APPARATUS [72] Inventor: Irby Enns Hartley, Jra, Chattanooga,

Tenn.

[73] Assignee: E. l. du Pont de Nemours and Company,

Wilmington, Del.

[22] Filed: Aug. 27, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 67,527

[52] US. Cl... ....57/34 TT, 242/18 EW, 242/18 PW [51] Int. Cl ..D0lh l/38, D01h 9/02, B6511 67/04 [58] Field ofSearch ..57/34 R, 34 TI, 75, 119, 129, 57/131; 242/18 EW, 18 PW [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,800,762 7/ 1957 Wurmli ..57/34 UX 2,898,054 8/1959 Rea ..242/18 3,075,342 1/1963 Lohest et al... .....57/34 UX 3,162,993 12/1964 Green ..242/18 X 3,490,218 l/ 1970 Naegeli ..57/34 Primary ExaminerDonald E. Watkins Attorney-Howard P. West, Jr.

[57] ABSTRACT A waste spool for use with a ring twister comprising a frustoconical body member having a pair of tabs extending outwardly from its top surface. The particular structural relationship of the tabs with the tapered surface of the body member, coupled with a specified taper of the body member, provide a starting location for the waste windings that will enable their easy removal as a circular yarn wrap over the end of the waste spool.

6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures mum) rm 81912 31640058 INVENTOR 20' IRBY sums HARTLEY, JR.

ATTORNEY APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to a spool for collecting filamentary materials and, more particularly, to an improved textile spool used to collect waste yarns on a ring twister such as a drawtwister.

In the past, various flanged spools of both frustoconical and cylindrical shape have been used as waste spools on ring twisters. These spools are generally located below the bobbin or package holder and the initially wound nonuniform yarn is directed to the spool as winding is initiated by lowering the guide rail below its normal traversing position where it is maintained in a fixed position until such time as uniform yarn is being fed to the spool at which time normal winding of a package is initiated. It is important that the capacity of such spools be sufficient to hold all the waste yarn produced without sloughing and riding up to foul the windings or the transfer tail usually provided on such yarn packages and that the yarn wraps deposited on the spool be easily removable following completion of winding of a complete package.

Waste spools combining increased capacity and easy yarn removal are known which employ resilient deformable flanges or flaps. Use of resilient deformable members complicates construction and leads to reduced wear life for the spools. It is highly desirable to provide a waste spool combining high yam capacity, slough prevention and easy yarn removal with ease of fabrication and long wear life.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A yarn waste spool for use with a ring twister which comprises a frustoconical-shaped body member having top and bottom surfaces connected by an axial passage. The outer surface of the body member tapers inwardly from the bottom toward and joining the top surface to form an upper edge of the body. A pair of opposed rigid tabs extend outwardly from the upper edge of the body and project downwardly toward and intersect the outer surface of the body at diametrically opposed points. The distance circumscribed by an elliptical are from one of said points along said outer surface to said edge then back to the other of said points is equal to or less than the distance circumscribed by a semicircular arc around the outer surface of the body from one to the other of the points.

Slots are provided in the outer surface of the body member to accommodate a tool for lifting yarn wraps formed on the spool over its top edge. In a preferred embodiment the taper of the conical portion of the spool or body member is between 4.5 and 6 and the tabs are equispaced on opposite sides of the spool between the slots.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevation showing the novel spool of this invention mounted on a yarn twister assembly.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating some of the dimensional relationships involved in the spool of the invention.

FIG. 3 is an elevation view of the spool of the invention showing a yarn wrap being removed.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of another embodiment of the waste spool of this invention.

FIG. 5 is a section of FIG. 4 taken along 5-5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIGS. 1-5, it will be seen that the apparatus chosen for purposes of illustration includes generally as components thereof a vertical spindle 16 with whorl 32 carrying a driving belt for the spindle. A yarn package 14 on bobbin I2 is mounted for rotation on spindle shaft 16. Ring 28 mounted in a traversing rail, not shown, carries traveler 26. Waste spool 18 is fixedly mounted axially to shaft 16 above whorl 32.

As best illustrated in FIG. 2, spool 18 comprises a frustoconical-shaped body member with two tabs 22 oppositely spaced on the upper periphery of the spool, and interspaced in a symmetrical arrangement are two generallyrectangular slots 20 in the side of the spool and extending from the upper surface downward for a major portion of the distance to the bottom surface. A central axial bore 21 connecting the top and bottom surfaces of the waste spool 18 is provided as a means for mounting the spool to shaft 16. The spool may be adapted for threading onto the spindle as shown in FIG. 5. Preferably, the spool is constructed of a rigid and tough plastic material, such as a polyamide or the like. The tabs 22 are formed in the shape of inverted cones which intersect and are faired into the frustoconical surface 23 of the spool, theirlower end terminating at a point 38 generally about one-third to one-fourth of the distance down from the upper surface of the spool.

In use as illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, a threadline 10 is delivered from a suitable source such as from a drawing operation, not shown, through traveler 26 and onto the surface of than distance along the semicircular arc 27. Point 29 at the apex of elliptical are 25 thus represents a point on the top edge 31 of the spool over which the waste wraps wound on at the plane of arc 27 must pass without interference. The base points 38 of the tabs 22 are the starting and end points of arcs 25, 27

Tabs 22 extend radially a sufficient distance outward beyond the circular periphery or upper edge 31 of the upper planer surface of the spool to retain a depth of yarn exceeding that which would be wound on in a normal string-up. In a preferred embodiment (FIGS. 4, 5), the taper angle 33 of the conical portion 23 of the spool is about 5. The tabs are equally spaced on opposite sides of the spool between removal slots 20', extend beyond the edge 31 of the spool about onefourth inch and extend downwardly from the edge on the tapered outer surface about one-half inch for a spool diameter at the plane of arc 27 of about 2% inches. We have found that, in this embodiment, the angle of 5 provides more than enough clearance for the yarn wrap to slip over the edge 31 and thus allows for some retraction of the yarn as the wrap is being removed. The distance from edge 31 to point 38 may in some applications be up to about 2 inches depending on the diameter of the waste spool used.

To remove waste following winding of a yarn package 14 and removal of the bobbin 12 from the spindle 16, a semicircular yarn wrap is lifted over the edge 31 of the truncated cone at point 29 midway between the tabs 22 by inserting a hooked tool 34 below the yarn into the slot 20 and lifting upward (FIG. 3).

The particular structural relationshipof the intersection of tabs 22 with the tapered surface 23 coupled with the specified taper of spool 18 functions to provide a positive locator for windings 24 so that they will be easily removed as a circular yarn wrap over the end of spool 18 at the completion of a package.

The invention greatly increases the amount of waste yarn which can be wound on a waste spool of a given size and at the same time eliminates sloughing which can foul the yarn transfer tail formed on the lower end of the bobbin or the main windings themselves. In addition, yarn wraps may be removed easily at the desired time. The spool may be fabricated easily and its rigid construction provides a long wear life.

It will be apparent that changes and modifications to the disclosed waste spool may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention which is accordingly intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A .yarn waste spool comprising: a frustoconical-shaped body member having top and bottom surfaces connected by an axial passage, said body member having an outer surface tapering inwardly from said bottom surface toward and joining said top surface to form an upper edge of the body; a pair of opposed rigid tabs extending outwardly from said upper edge, each of said tabs having a surface intersecting at diametrically opposed points with said outer surface, the distance circumscribed by an elliptical are from oneof said points along said outer surface to said edge then back to the other of said points being substantially equal to the distance circumscribed by a semicircular are around said outer surface from one to the I other of said points.

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, including a slot in said outer surface extending downward from said top surface.

3. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, said outer surface tapering inwardly at an angle of from about 4% to about 6, said opposed points being located a distance from the top surface of about one-third to one-fourth the distance between the top and bottom surfaces. 7

4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, said outer surface tapering inwardly at an angle of about 5, said opposed points being located at a distance from said top surface of about onehalf inch.

5. A yarn waste spool for use with a ring twister comprising: a frustoconical-shaped body member having top and bottom surfaces connected by an axial passage, said body member having an outer surface tapering inwardly at an angle of about 5 from said bottom surface toward and joining said top surface to form an upper edge of the body; a pair of opposed rigid tabs extending outwardly from said upper edge, each of said tabs having a surface intersecting at diametrically opposed points with said outer surface, the distance circumscribed by an elliptical are from one of said points along said outer surface to said edge then back to the other of said points being less than the distance circumscribed by a semicircular are around said outer surface from one to the other of said points, the diameter of said body at the plane of said semicircular are being about 2% inches, said points intersecting said outer surface at a distance of about one-half inch from said top surface.

6. The apparatus as defined in claim 5, including opposed slots in said outer surface, said slots extending between said top and bottom surfaces. 

1. A yarn waste spool comprising: a frustoconical-shaped body member having top and bottom surfaces connected by an axial passage, said body member having an outer surface tapering inwardly from said bottom surface toward and joining said top surface to form an upper edge of the body; a pair of opposed rigid tabs extending outwardly from said upper edge, each of said tabs having a surface intersecting at diametrically opposed points with said outer surface, the distance circumscribed by an elliptical arc from one of said points along said outer surface to said edge then back to the other of said points being substantially equal to the distance circumscribed by a semicircular arc around said outer surface from one to the other of said points.
 2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, including a slot in said outer surface extending downward from said top surface.
 3. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, said outer surface tapering inwardly at an angle of from about 4 1/2 * to about 6*, said opposed points being located a distance from the top surface of about one-third to one-fourth the distance between the top and bottom surfaces.
 4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, said outer surface tapering inwardly at an angle of about 5*, said opposed points being located at a distance from said top surface of about one-half inch.
 5. A yarn waste spool for use with a ring twister comprising: a frustoconical-shaped body member having top and bottom surfaces connected by an axial passage, said body member having an outer surface tapering inwardly at an angle of about 5* from said bottom surface toward and joining said top surface to form an upper edge of the body; a pair of opposed rigid tabs extending outwardly from said upper edge, each of said tabs having a surface intersecting at diametrically opposed points with said outer surface, the distance circumscribed by an elliptical arc from one of said points along said outer surface to said edge then back to the other of said points being less than the distance circumscribed by a semicircular arc around said outer surface from one to the other of said points, the diameter of said body at the plane of said semicircular arc being about 2 3/4 inches, said points intersecting said outer surface at a distance of about one-half inch from said top surface.
 6. The apparatus as defined in claim 5, including opposed slots in said outer surface, said slots extending between said top and bottom surfaces. 